Reason raises ‘tunnels’ idea — again
June 5, 2008 at 11:04 am by Thomas Wheatley in NewsThe Reason Foundation, a Libertarian-leaning think tank, is keeping its idea about a multi-level traffic tunnel running underneath Atlanta alive.
From a May 28 post on the group’s website titled “Tunnels Are Part of the Traffic Solution”:
This proposed tunnel would have an inside diameter or 45 feet and each deck would have three 11 foot lanes and an overhead clearance of 12 feet allowing the tunnel to accommodate buses as well as SUVs and cars. The northern tunnel would be 5 miles long and the southern one would be 3.1 miles in length.
…
In 2004, Refik Eilbay, the director of tunneling services for Jordan, Jones and Goulding, a leading Georgia-based engineering firm told Tunnel Business Magazine, “The area continues to grow, so the City is developing long-range plans to deal with the population increase. Because there is less and less surface space available to support infrastructure growth, it will continue moving to the last remaining frontier – the underground.”
Eh. How about we occupy some of those narrow slices of land and finally offer rail options? You know, avoid the tailpipe emissions, the massive cost, the continued reliance on the automobile as the primary mode of transportation?
For a great take on the Reason study, click here to read a August 2007 CL article by Joe Winter.
(Photo courtesy of Cofiroute)
June 5th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
When in holy hell is someone gonna tell all the geniuses at the “Reason” Foundation that Atlanta is BUILT ON TOP OF A GIANT, GRANITE ROCK??!!
June 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Maybe they mean that Atlanta Underground is the last available frontier? Sure felt like it last time I was there.
And how exactly does one go about getting a subscription to Tunnel Business Magazine? I’d love to check out their centerfolds.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Even the DOT commissioner is on record as saying we can’t pave our way out of our transportation problems. There are also economic models for transportation regarding congestion that prove this irrefutably. It sounds like the reason foundation wants to add tunneling through granite, then paving those tunnels to address the problem. Hardly reasonable.
Can we please put the notion and discussion of this tunnel where it belongs, in the trash, and focus on expansion of regional rail initiatives?